What do we do?
The North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement (NCCCR) is an award-winning, internationally-acclaimed learning community dedicated to promoting lifelong learning, leadership, community service and research. We opened our doors in 1988 as a department of the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA). Our goal is to enable our members to “thrive” in life’s second half.
The Center embraces an unusually comprehensive array of programs in the arts and humanities, the natural world, civic engagement, wellness, life transition and retirement relocation planning, intergenerational co-learning, and research on trends in the reinvention of retirement.
How do we operate?
NCCCR is housed in our own building, Reuter Center, on the UNCA campus. Our collaborative member-staff led organization operates as a public-private entity with two-thirds of our budget derived from fees and one-third from state funding. Approximately 450 members volunteer each year to do everything from teach, serve on committees, run research projects, mentor undergraduates, and provide consulting to other UNCA departments.
Who’s watching?
The Center’s uniqueness has earned it frequent mention in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney, Business Week, Kiplinger’s, and The Christian Science Monitor, and on websites such as CNN.com, AOL.com and many others.
Who participates?
How large is the Center’s Boomer population? If we stretch a couple of years beyond the current age threshold of 62, we find that 43% of our more than 1800 annual members are age 64 and under. So we’re nearing half who can claim to have experienced Woodstock or saw Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show. Balancing out the upstart Boomer generation, we have members of the “greatest” generation represented by 17% age 75 and above.
Where are we heading?
Our Center continues to grow by taking the accumulated experience and knowledge of the past and making it newly relevant to the changing environment and conditions of life. Members get to join a new community by making friends with people who share their interests. Come and take your turn with us. You will discover wonderful, new aspects of yourself and the environment that surrounds you!
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